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New video shows Texas church shooting heroes talking with cops minutes after pursuing the shooter
Image source: TheBlaze

New video shows Texas church shooting heroes talking with cops minutes after pursuing the shooter

Video shot by Johnnie Langendorff — one of the Texas heroes in the aftermath of the First Baptist Church shooting in Sutherland Springs — shows Stephen Willeford talking to police in the moments after shooter Devin Patrick Kelley crashed his car on the side of the road.

What's in the video?

The video features Willeford and Langendorff being interviewed by cops at the scene of the crash.

Willeford can be heard telling the officer that he lives across the street from the church, and the noise of the shots drew him out.

Willeford, who wasn't even wearing socks or shoes, grabbed his gun and ran across the street, where he told officers he fired "some well-placed shots" into Kelley.

He later turns around to Langendorff, who is filming the exchange between Willeford and the officer, and thanks him for his willingness to help pursue the shooter.

"I don't even know you, man. Thank you so much," he says.

The video concludes as Willeford asks Langendorff if he can use his phone to call his wife and daughter.

In the earlier moments of the video, law enforcement can be seen slowly rolling up to Kelley's disabled SUV with their guns trained on the vehicle.

How did the heroes get involved?

According to law enforcement officials, Willeford confronted 26-year-old Kelley after he opened fire on parishioners in the town’s First Baptist Church.

When Kelley opened fire on the church with a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle, Willeford heard the shots and grabbed his own rifle to engage Kelly.

Kelley was reportedly struck by one of Willeford's bullets, and got into his vehicle to flee.

Willeford approached Langendorff, who was sitting in his truck at a stop sign, and told him that the man responsible for the church shooting was about to get away.

The two men traveled at high rates of speed through the town and after 11 miles, Kelley crashed into a ditch after suffering what was presumed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

After chasing Kelley down, Willeford described how he kept his gun ready until the police arrived.

“I reached down to open the door, still with my rifle in hand, and he sped up and he hit a road sign and it flipped over, the truck, or his SUV,” he said, “he ran across up on the road about another 100 yards, down and down into the ditch.”

“And Johnny stopped the truck on the road and I told him I said, ‘Get down, get down,’ he got down in the truck and I stepped out of the door and I put my rifle across the hood of the truck, and was yelling 'Get out of the truck, get out of the truck, get out of the truck,” he said.

Willeford said he saw no movement from the killer’s direction and waited there until the police arrived.

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Sarah Taylor

Sarah Taylor

Sarah is a former staff writer for TheBlaze, and a former managing editor and producer at TMZ. She resides in Delaware with her family. You can reach her via Twitter at @thesarahdtaylor.